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My family and I moved to Metuchen from Long Island about a year and a half ago. We really love the town life (again.. very similar to Babylon on LI) and feel it is a similar lifetyle.

The only thing that makes me a little homesick is the fact that the beach is so far away. We are contemplating looking at moving down the Shore, but we really feel that we're fortunate to have found metuchen with such a nice town life and a vibrant community for kids (we have a 17 month old and a 6 month old)... Does any know of a great year-round town on the Jersey Shore? (ex. a nice "main" street with restaurants, shops, nearby Catholic church, etc)

Not to make things more difficult, but we like activty. A quiet/sleepy town would not work for us. Thanks again for your help!

The NJ shore area has a lot of great towns that you would be very happy in raising your family. It encompasses a large region with many such towns. The question to you is how far down the shore do you want to go? Monmouth or Ocean County? Where do you work and what type of a commute would you be willing to do each day? Will you be looking at mass transit? Also, how much home can you afford? There are a lot of realtors on here than can answer some of your questions, I live in Northern Monmouth Cty. and am very happy (Middletown) but maybe you want to go further south? There are a lot of folks that would love to help you.

Tina said the right thing, alot of factors come into play. If you move one town away from the beach area the cost of the housing is a lot cheaper than beach towns and you miss alot of the summer traffic.
I myself like Ocean County a little cheaper housing and a little more spread out. That being said the commute to work is longer. The North Jersey corridor train ends at Bay Head for the ride north. The beaches are beautiful and only a mile away from towns such as Point Pleasant, Brick and parts of Toms River. Once you get south of Toms River the commute north is way to long. Good luck with your search. The towns mentioned have excellent schools.

Barnegat in Ocean County has great schools, access to GSP, close to LBI but not in the middle of shore traffic. There is a communtity bay beach, boat ramp to the bay and municipal dock for fishing/crabbing. The recreation dept. sponsors a lot of activities for children and families. There is a lot of new home construction in the area. St. Mary's Catholic Church is a very active parish. A lot of people from Middlesex County have transplanted to Barnegat.

You cannot say Barnegat has bad schools, b/c you don't live here. I have 5 children in 4 different schools here and CANNOT say enough about the education they recieve. The teachers REALLLY care about the kids.

When my daughter needed extra help in math the teacher invited her to have LUNCH with her!!!

We have free summer camps 5 days a week run by the teachers.

THe area is building up so much and they are keeping up. THe average class has 18 kids!

Why would Pt. Beach schools come as a surprise to someone who is speaking as if they know quite a bit about the schools in NJ?
I agree with the poster who said that Barnegat schools are ranked at the bottom of the barrel. Just the facts.

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